What brand of ball joints?

I am looking to do this soon along with all the other joints in the suspension. Worth getting name brand like Moog? Or do I get the store brand from Oreily's or NAPA?

The name brand definitely gets expensive when you look into 4 ball joints and all the tie rod and drag link ends. Is it worth it?

NAPA Premium FTW! I fully expect to not change these for a long time, unlike the 3-year-old A-Z cheapies.

I've heard complaints about the MOOG lately. I've also heard about manufacturers using plastic, and rubber liners in the ball socket. NAPA PREMIUM has steel liners in the socket. The extra $100, is worth not doing this over.

I personally just bought another set of Spicer ball joints. I knew they worked and got 213,000 miles on them which you can't beat.

Also I got mine from alljeep http://www.alljeep.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?products_id=167752

Which is a heck of deal at that price to get both the upper and lower ball joint together.

check these bad boys out

http://www.synergysuspension.com/Sy...Heavy-Duty-Front-Ball-Joint-Sets-p-26182.html

I only have 235/75-15's so I don't need anything "overkill", but that spicer group looks mighty tempting.

You know of anyone that runs those synergy ones?

Dana Spicer is OEM. I tried the Napa cheap one and they fell apart after about a dozen trips. I just tried to replace them with Spicer joints but for some reason my uppers fit loose.

I could push them in and pull them out by hand. I got the Napa Premiums and they were a press fit and everything felt very solid. Guy at Napa told me they have a life time warrenty, that's nice.

If these don't work out then I will get the Synergy ones hands down. The Napa Premiums have a metal bushing as well, at least that is what I was told.

josh

do you have the part number for the napa premiums? All I see are cheap ones and adjustable ones. nothing that seems premium.

I too have heard some people having trouble with some Moog parts. I used to use them years ago and never had any trouble with their parts personally.

I now opt for Spicer. I think they are excellent quality; worth the money.

I hear ya. But it seems everyone has problems with everything. I was looking into rifles a few months ago, the more I looked, the more every gun had problems and people deemed them not as good as they used to be. etc.

I would be curious to see if that is the case, or are people more able to communicate the problems they have with goods these days with the internet and all . . .

When the time comes I will probably get either Moog NAPA or Spicer as it seems most people have the least amount of bad things to say about them.

Spicer, or Napa. Make sure they're serviceable. "Heavy duty" u-joints are not serviceable, but being solid makes them stronger and more capable of handing more power. I really doubt the modest output of our 4.0s necessitate the "heavy duty" u-joints, I see those as bearing failure waiting to happen, especially if submerged.

yeah I doubt the +-150 hp the 200K renix puts out needs anything heavy duty other than battery grounding cables

ChevelleSSLS6 said:

Spicer, or Napa. Make sure they're serviceable. "Heavy duty" u-joints are not serviceable, but being solid makes them stronger and more capable of handing more power. I really doubt the modest output of our 4.0s necessitate the "heavy duty" u-joints, I see those as bearing failure waiting to happen, especially if submerged.

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Well the OP was asking about ball joints not u-joints which all the uppers are serviceable while only some of the brands offer serviceable lowers.

In reference to the non-serviceable joints I run non-serviceable joints in my rear driveshaft and front axle shafts. The OEM non-serviceable Spicer in the passengerside axle shaft made it to 213,000 miles without a problem. A shop I used to take my Jeep to before I learned how easy all of this really is told me my front driver side axle joint was bad and replaced it with some off brand Japanese junk. The Jap crap made it maybe 4 years before it nearly seized up. When I pulled it out I could only make the joint move one way as the other way was way to rusted. Anyway I replaced the passenger side joint as well since it was the original OEM spicer joint with 213,000 on it and when I took it out it still had plenty of grease and moved no problem and really didn't need replacing. A good quality non-serviceable joint will last a good amount of time. I have sunk my front axle in plenty of nasty sand filled swamp mud in South GA and red clay mud in North GA.

Both non-serviceable and serviceable have their pros and cons but they are both fine joints. Non-serviceable have a bit more strength but serviceable gives the owner the peace of mind of control over maintenance.

Point is whatever you buy, buy a good high quality brand at whatever price you can afford. Sometimes that is OEM and sometimes that is aftermarket.

I will look for the part number tonight

I put these in my 1990 Limited: 260-1291, 260-1292. I don't know what model-years use the same part numbers.

Just looked, those are them. I used Spicer lowers with Napa uppers

Ben824 said:

I personally just bought another set of Spicer ball joints. I knew they worked and got 213,000 miles on them which you can't beat.

Also I got mine from alljeep http://www.alljeep.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?products_id=167752

Which is a heck of deal at that price to get both the upper and lower ball joint together.

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2 Spicer BJ's for $42 - that's impossible - isn't it?

I oreded my Spicer Ball joints from Rock Auto because my 2 year old Moogs where shot so from now on Ill stick with Spicer.

greenlawnjeeper said:

2 Spicer BJ's for $42 - that's impossible - isn't it?

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Nope! It's absolutely real life! Ordered up a set for both sides and they have been working great! Highly recommend picking these up from Alljeep.com